Global Pulse

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  • What Iran’s resilience tells China, Russia about US power

    What Iran’s resilience tells China, Russia about US power

    At the outbreak of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, few policymakers in Beijing or Moscow predicted that Tehran would be able to sustainedly withstand coordinated military pressure from two of the world’s most militarily advanced powers. In the conflict’s opening phase, the overwhelming air, intelligence, and technological superiority of US and Israeli forces inflicted heavy losses on Iranian military and infrastructure targets. What was initially planned as a rapid operation to cripple Iran’s core military capabilities has however evolved into a protracted, increasingly costly conflict that has defied early expectations.

    Against all odds, Iran has retained intact its core governing political structure and a substantial portion of its operational military response capacity. This outcome delivers a clear demonstration that inflicting widespread physical damage does not equate to forcing a targeted state into unconditional surrender. Iran’s unexpected battlefield resilience is far more than a regional military development – it has become a real-world stress test for the outer limits of American global power for both China and Russia. While the two countries hold divergent core interests in the conflict, neither can dismiss a decisive Iranian defeat as a regional issue isolated from great power competition. Both Beijing and Moscow recognize that if the United States can leverage its military dominance to strategically neutralize one of West Asia’s most prominent independent powers, the regional balance of power will shift dramatically, with ripple effects extending into the broader geopolitical and geoeconomic rivalry between Washington, Beijing, and Moscow.

    ### China’s Balancing Act Between Economic Pain and Strategic Interests

    Of all major global powers, China faces the sharpest economic incentives to push for an immediate end to the conflict. Decades of deep energy trade ties have made China Iran’s largest crude oil buyer, so disruptions to energy transit and rising insecurity in the Strait of Hormuz directly impact Chinese economic performance. Data from Reuters confirms that China’s seaborne crude imports fell to roughly 7.14 million barrels per day in August 2026, a nearly 40% drop from pre-war levels. This supply disruption has cut off major Chinese refineries from a critical, low-cost source of crude oil.

    Yet this immediate economic pain sits at the heart of Beijing’s core strategic dilemma: while a prolonged war harms Chinese economic interests, Beijing cannot accept a outcome that leaves Iran strategically defeated. For China, Iran is far more than just an energy supplier – it is a core node in the broader web of political and economic partnerships China has built across West Asia to expand its influence without relying on the formal military alliances that underpin US power in the region. A strategic collapse of Iran would not only reshape bilateral relations between Tehran and Washington; it would entrench far greater US influence across West Asia and erode the strategic space China has painstakingly built in the region.

    China’s policy over years of maximum US pressure on Iran has reflected this balancing act. Beijing’s support for Tehran has never been limited to rhetorical political statements. China has consistently remained one of the largest buyers of Iranian crude, with independent Chinese teapot refineries continuing to import Iranian oil even amid threats of harsh US secondary sanctions. This persistence is why US officials have made Chinese crude purchases a central focus of their economic pressure campaign against Iran. This economic relationship has grown even more critical since the outbreak of full-scale war: as Washington moves to cut off Iran’s oil exports and global financial access, China stands as one of the only major economies capable of absorbing excess Iranian supply and easing economic pressure on Tehran. For Beijing, continuing to import Iranian oil is not merely a commercial transaction – it is a test case for resisting the ability of US sanctions to dictate the policy of major economies outside the American orbit, which explains why the issue has remained a persistent source of bilateral friction between Washington and Beijing.

    China’s engagement extends beyond energy trade. US intelligence reports in recent years have documented that Iran has gained access to certain dual-use technologies, including components critical to its drone and missile programs, through commercial networks linked to Chinese companies. While a clear line must be drawn between official Chinese government policy and the independent activities of these commercial networks, their operations demonstrate how sustained economic ties have helped preserve a large portion of Iran’s technological and industrial base even under strict international sanctions. Diplomatically, Beijing has also refused to back Iran’s full isolation from the international community. Alongside Russia, China has repeatedly called for a negotiated political resolution to the conflict and opposed what it views as unilateral US-led pressure campaigns against Tehran.

    This does not mean Beijing is prepared to commit to direct military defense of Iran. China’s core priority remains ending the war to restore stability to global energy trade routes. Yet there is a critical difference between ending the conflict and ending it on terms that leave Iran severely weakened and the regional balance of power decisively tilted toward Washington. It is here that Iran’s battlefield resilience carries the greatest strategic weight for China: the longer Tehran demonstrates it can retain operational military capacity after repeated heavy attacks, the more complex Beijing’s calculation of the consequences of an Iranian defeat becomes.

    Crucially, China does not need to enter the war directly to support Iran. Its existing toolkit of economic, commercial, technological, and diplomatic tools allows it to prevent Iran’s total isolation without becoming a formal belligerent in the conflict. Perhaps the most valuable outcome for China from the war, however, is not energy trade or preserved influence in West Asia – it is the opportunity to observe firsthand the operational performance of US military forces in a high-intensity conflict. Beijing has gained unfiltered insights into US long-range strike capabilities, air operations, ammunition consumption rates, logistics sustainment, and missile defense performance. For a country whose long-term strategic competition with the US centers heavily on the Taiwan scenario, this real-world observational data is strategically invaluable.

    ### Russia’s Divergent Strategic Calculations

    Russia’s core interests in the conflict differ substantially from China’s. Unlike Beijing, Moscow does not rely heavily on West Asian energy imports, and elevated global energy prices actually create short-term economic benefits for Russian export revenues. For the Kremlin, the Iran conflict is tied directly to Russia’s standing as a Eurasian power and its long-term goal of building a multipolar global order.

    For Russia, Iran is more than a regional partner: it is one of the few major powers openly locked in full-scale conflict with both the US and Israel, capable of drawing significant American geopolitical and military attention away from Europe and the ongoing war in Ukraine, easing pressure on Moscow. A 2026 analysis published in *Middle East Policy* argues that the conflict has created clear short-term strategic advantages for Russia, while also elevating Iran’s importance to both Russia’s regional influence and its bilateral partnership with China.

    Evidence of deep military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran extends far beyond rhetorical political alignment. Reporting from the *Financial Times* confirms that Russian military experts have participated in a secret collaborative program with Iran since 2023 to develop propulsion technology for hypersonic cruise missiles, a cooperation that has continued into 2026. Additional independent reporting has documented ongoing cooperation in satellite technology and transfers of complementary military equipment between the two states. This cooperation does not amount to a formal mutual defense alliance, and neither China nor Russia has offered Iran a binding security guarantee comparable to the commitments of a formal defense pact. But this informal, flexible cooperation has emerged as the defining feature of their current alignment: both powers can use economic, technological, and diplomatic tools to strengthen Iran’s defensive capacity and constrain US pressure without committing to open direct war with the United States.

    ### Contours of an Emerging Multipolar Global Order

    Ultimately, the long-term significance of the US-Israeli war on Iran does not depend solely on which side gains the upper hand on the battlefield. The larger, more consequential question is whether the United States still retains the ability to use its combined military and economic superiority to impose its preferred political outcome on a defiant regional power. For China and Russia, the answer to this question carries sweeping implications. If Iran can sustain its resistance despite intense military pressure and crippling economic sanctions, the conflict will confirm that US ability to inflict widespread damage does not translate into ability to dictate political outcomes – a lesson that carries particular weight for China as it prepares for long-term strategic competition with Washington.

    At the same time, the policy approaches of China and Russia demonstrate that challenging US hegemony does not require the creation of a formal anti-US alliance. Purchasing Iranian oil, sustaining bilateral trade, transferring dual-use technology, engaging in informal military cooperation, and wielding Security Council vetoes are all tools that raise the strategic and political cost of unilateral US power projection. Most recently, in April 2026, China and Russia jointly vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on the Strait of Hormuz, with Beijing explicitly arguing that the council should not legitimize unauthorized military operations by unilateral coalitions.

    This does not mean a cohesive China-Russia-Iran geopolitical axis is emerging. The three countries hold divergent interests on many regional and global issues, and none is willing to bear unlimited costs to advance another power’s goals. Even so, the war in Iran has accelerated a broader global shift: moving from a post-Cold War order where the United States unilaterally sets the rules and determines outcomes for international crises, toward a new order where competing great powers can systematically raise the cost of unilateral US power projection.

    The conflict has brought the contours of this emerging order into sharp relief. For Beijing and Moscow, Iran’s fate is not merely the future of a single regional partner. It is a critical test case: can the United States still unilaterally determine the outcome of a major regional war, or can other global powers use resistance, informal partnership, and counterpressure to raise the cost of US hegemony high enough to push the international system irreversibly toward multipolarity?

  • Mother demands answers, weeks after black woman found hanging from Mississippi tree

    Mother demands answers, weeks after black woman found hanging from Mississippi tree

    More than a month after 29-year-old Tasia Fortune’s body was discovered hanging from a tree on the property of an abandoned Jackson, Mississippi home, her grieving family and a restless local community are still pushing for transparent information from law enforcement and state officials.

    Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, who resides in Kentucky, told the BBC she is consumed by frustration over repeated delays and a lack of communication from investigating officers. Spivey last saw her daughter alive at a family reunion in late July, when Fortune mentioned she was considering moving back home to be closer to her family. When Spivey was finally called to identify her daughter’s remains at a funeral home ahead of burial, she was too devastated to look directly at the body, only glancing at it from the corner of her eye. She ultimately chose burial over cremation, holding out faint hope that new investigation findings could one day require an exhumation for further testing.

    For weeks after the 3 August discovery of Fortune’s body, police offered no public updates on the case, and Spivey says her repeated requests for information about the investigation’s progress went completely unanswered. That changed only this Tuesday, when Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney confirmed for the first time that the department has treated Fortune’s death as a potential homicide from the first day of the probe, as investigators wait for formal autopsy results from the state medical examiner’s office. Brackney explained to the BBC that labeling all pending death investigations as potential homicides is standard policy to preserve critical evidence before an official cause of death is confirmed; prior to Tuesday’s announcement, the department had only described the matter as a general death investigation. The medical examiner’s office has declined to comment on the active case.

    Anxiety over the case has spread rapidly across majority-Black Jackson, amplified by Mississippi’s long, brutal history of racial terror lynchings against Black Americans. Fortune’s death marks the third incident in less than a year where a body was found hanging from a tree in the state. In September 2025, two bodies — one a Black man, the other a white man — were discovered on the same day. Both were officially ruled suicides, but the mother of the Black victim, Trey Reed, continues to dispute that finding.

    The prolonged lack of clarity has fueled widespread distrust in local and state authorities. Two online petitions have gained tens of thousands of signatures: one calls for an independent investigation into the office of Mississippi’s chief medical examiner Dr. Staci Turner, who has overseen the recent string of cases involving Black decedents, while the other demands the FBI launch a federal probe into Fortune’s death. The BBC has requested comment from Dr. Turner but has not yet received a response.

    Local leaders have echoed the community’s calls for urgent action. Jackson City Councilman Kenneth Stokes told the BBC he has visited the neighborhood where Fortune reportedly lived multiple times and has never seen police officers conducting investigative work at the site. “All cases are important, but this one — a hanging in Mississippi — should rise to the top of the priority list,” Stokes said. He sent formal requests for assistance weeks ago to federal prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Mississippi and to the FBI, but has yet to receive any reply from either agency. “Nothing from nobody. It’s like nobody cares,” Stokes added. The BBC has also contacted both federal offices for comment with no response as of press time.

    U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett has formally requested federal intervention, sending a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice asking for a full investigation into the recent string of Mississippi deaths, including Fortune’s, labeling them potential “modern-day lynchings” and referencing the state’s well-documented history of anti-Black violent terrorism. The DOJ has not yet responded to requests for comment on the request. Notably, Mississippi is not alone: this year alone, four Black Americans have been found hanged from trees in North Carolina, three of which have been ruled suicides with an autopsy still pending for the fourth.

    While Stokes stresses he has not concluded whether Fortune’s death was a racially motivated lynching, he says the only thing that matters to him and the community is getting clear, accurate answers. For young Black residents including Brandon King, president of the Jackson State University student chapter of the NAACP, the uncertainty has created a pervasive climate of fear. “This is supposed to be the state capital. This is where I’m supposed to feel the most safe,” King told the BBC. “Right now, the feeling is that you could be next. This is in your own backyard.”

    For Spivey, the anger and grief remain raw. “What is the hold up?” she asked, echoing the question that has gone unanswered for more than a month for her family and thousands of others demanding accountability.

  • Europe’s royalty pay respects to King Harald V in Norway

    Europe’s royalty pay respects to King Harald V in Norway

    OSLO — Nearly two weeks after the passing of Norway’s King Harald V at the age of 89, dignitaries from across the globe gathered in the Norwegian capital Wednesday to lay to rest one of the nation’s most popular modern monarchs, closing 13 days of national mourning with a day of full ceremonial honors.

    The day of remembrance began with ceremonial troops assembling at Akershus Fortress, the medieval hilltop castle that would become Harald’s final resting place. A formal procession then carried the late king’s casket from the Royal Palace through central Oslo to Oslo Cathedral, where the public funeral service was held. Tens of thousands of Norwegians lined the procession route to pay their final respects, as members of the royal family followed the coffin through the city streets. Newly ascended King Haakon, Harald’s only son, walked alongside his sister Princess Märtha Louise and their children, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus. Queen Sonja, Harald’s 89-year-old widow, and Queen Mette-Marit, Haakon’s wife who recently underwent a successful lung transplant, followed behind in a motor vehicle.

    More than 30 senior royal figures from 10 nations around the world joined the ceremony, alongside multiple heads of state and government. The United Kingdom’s delegation included Prince William, the Prince of Wales, who represented his father King Charles III, and Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, who attended in a personal capacity as King Haakon’s godmother. Nordic neighbors were represented by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Denmark’s King Frederik X, completing the group of three reigning Nordic monarchs in attendance. Other high-profile guests included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, alongside five foreign prime ministers and royals from Jordan, Monaco, Belgium, Spain, Japan and the Netherlands.

    During the service inside Oslo Cathedral, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre delivered a moving eulogy honoring the late king’s 35-year reign. Støre praised Harald for his rare ability to strike a balance between regal dignity and approachable groundedness, noting that he had “made Norway greater” through his steady leadership. Queen Sonja placed a single red rose atop her late husband’s casket, and both she and Mette-Marit were visibly emotional throughout the ceremony, with Mette-Marit seen wiping tears from her eyes. A brief, poignant moment of unintended disruption occurred when a mobile phone alarm interrupted three tolling bells marking the end of a national minute’s silence, which had been observed across every corner of Norway.

    A notable guest at the service was Marius Borg Høiby, Mette-Marit’s son, who is not a working royal but was raised in the royal household. Høiby, who was sentenced to four years in prison in June on two counts of rape and is currently under house arrest pending an appeal, received special court permission to attend his step-grandfather’s funeral, and sat in the second row alongside Märtha Louise’s children. The service concluded with a dramatic flyover of four F-35 fighter jets in the “missing man” formation, a traditional tribute to fallen leaders.

    Following the cathedral service, the casket was processed back to Akershus Fortress for a private interment ceremony in the Palace Chapel, attended by close family, visiting dignitaries and Norwegian political leaders. Harald was laid to rest alongside generations of Norwegian royal predecessors, including his father King Olav V, his mother Crown Princess Märtha, and his grandparents King Haakon VII and Queen Maud.

    After the burial, Norwegian flags across Oslo were raised from half-mast to full staff to mark the close of the national mourning period. The new royal leadership — King Haakon, Queen Mette-Marit, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Prince Sverre Magnus and Queen Sonja — returned to the Royal Palace, where they appeared on the palace balcony to greet the tens of thousands of Norwegians gathered outside. The appearance was a gesture of gratitude for the outpouring of public support the family has received since Harald’s death on August 28.

    Long remembered by Norwegians as a unifying, modernizing force who brought the Norwegian monarchy into the 21st century, Harald was widely described by royal observers as the “grandfather of the nation,” deeply respected and beloved across the political and social spectrum. In a statement released the day after his father’s passing, King Haakon thanked Harald for “being such a good dad” and praised him for remaining “always stayed true” to his core values and public commitments throughout his decades on the throne. The late king’s final months were marked by private and public turmoil for the family: earlier this year, documents revealed Mette-Marit’s past frequent contact with disgraced late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a connection she later said she regretted, alongside Høiby’s June conviction, which cast a shadow over the final period of Harald’s reign.

  • Israeli opposition accuses Netanyahu of fuelling diplomatic isolation after UK sanctions

    Israeli opposition accuses Netanyahu of fuelling diplomatic isolation after UK sanctions

    A major diplomatic rift has erupted between the United Kingdom and Israel after London imposed sweeping new sanctions on illegal Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, triggering immediate retaliation from Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government and deepening accusations from Israeli opposition that the current administration has pushed the country into historic global isolation.

    Announced by UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, the new measures mark a significant escalation of international pressure on Israel over its decades-long occupation of the West Bank. Miliband confirmed that the UK will officially designate Israel’s entire occupation of the West Bank as unlawful, and will implement a full ban on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements. Additional sanctions include asset freezes and travel restrictions targeting individuals and companies involved in settlement construction, infrastructure development, financing, and real estate projects tied to expanding settlements. The UK will also bar advertising of settlement-based properties within its borders, sanction extremist settlers linked to violence against Palestinian communities, and suspend new weapons export licenses that could materially support the occupation, maintaining over 30 existing arms suspensions already in place.

    Miliband emphasized that the sanctions target only illegal settlement activity, not the state of Israel itself, noting that the UK will continue normal trade with Israel within its pre-1967 internationally recognized borders. “Today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution,” he said, adding that the UK could no longer merely condemn injustice without taking concrete action. Miliband also accused Israeli settler groups of carrying out ethnic cleansing against Palestinian communities, saying Netanyahu’s government has deliberately turned a blind eye to this violence.

    The UK announcement was backed by a joint statement from 12 European and North American nations including France, Canada, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Sweden. The coalition called on Israel to immediately halt settlement expansion, hold perpetrators of settler violence accountable, and launch investigations into alleged abuses by Israeli forces, warning that ongoing Israeli actions in the West Bank have eliminated any viable path to a two-state solution that would deliver permanent peace for both Israelis and Palestinians.

    Netanyahu’s government responded with swift and sweeping retaliatory measures. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem, the expulsion of British representatives from the US-led International Gaza Support Centre (tasked with monitoring the Gaza ceasefire), and the termination of UK-led training programs for Palestinian Authority security forces. Israel also issued entry bans targeting 11 British parliamentarians known for their criticism of Israeli policy, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and one British human rights lawyer.

    Saar denounced the UK sanctions as “morally distorted” and “a blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state”, arguing that the measures were an inappropriate attempt to sway Israel’s upcoming October national elections. Claiming that the Israeli public overwhelmingly rejects the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, Saar warned that Israel would retaliate against any other country that follows the UK’s lead. “The message to every government that harms us: whoever acts against Israel – Israel will harm them, and they will lose their influence and relevance,” he said.

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog also condemned the sanctions, calling them “a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation, and a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history.” In a post on X, Herzog called on foreign governments to halt punitive measures, urging instead “constructive dialogue and cooperation.” Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir went further, urging Netanyahu to immediately close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, claiming the facility operates on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, and arguing that a hardline response is needed to push back against British “audacity”, reminding London that the British Mandate for Palestine ended decades ago and Israel is now a fully sovereign state.

    Inside Israel, opposition politicians have pinned the blame for the diplomatic fallout squarely on Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, saying the government’s unapologetic expansion of settlements has left the country more isolated globally than ever before. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who leads the main opposition bloc, called the British decision wrong but directed his criticism at the current administration. “[The government] is leading Israel into unprecedented diplomatic isolation, and doing nothing but issuing rebukes and threats that no one takes seriously,” Lapid said.

    Knesset member Gilad Kariv of the left-wing Democrats party echoed that assessment, saying Netanyahu’s government is directly responsible for the sanctions due to its ongoing seizure of Palestinian land in the West Bank. Kariv added that Netanyahu has become politically “leprous” on the global stage, and argued that ordinary Israeli citizens should not be forced to pay the price for the prime minister’s “corrupt alliance with nationalist fanatics” in his far-right coalition.

    Even some former senior Israeli officials have broken with the government to back the UK measures. Michael Ben-Yair, a former Israeli attorney-general, wrote in the Financial Times that while he does not support punitive action by a close Israeli ally, the sanctions are necessary to preserve the possibility of a two-state political solution that could deliver lasting peace and security for the seven million Jews and seven million Palestinians living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. Ben-Yair argued that the measures correctly distinguish between the legitimacy of Israel as a sovereign state and its ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory, which he described as “morally, politically and legally unacceptable.”

    Netanyahu’s government has faced growing international condemnation this year for accelerating settlement construction across the occupied West Bank. Earlier this year, the government opened tenders for more than 1,200 new settlement homes in the strategically sensitive E1 corridor, a plan that would connect Jerusalem to the large Ma’ale Adumim settlement and cut off the territorial contiguity of any future Palestinian state, a move widely seen as a fatal blow to the two-state framework.

  • Passenger killed after train hits truck at Poland level crossing

    Passenger killed after train hits truck at Poland level crossing

    Less than two weeks after another fatal rail incident at a level crossing in Poland, a second deadly crash has killed one passenger and left 20 others injured, four of them critically. The collision unfolded just after 11 a.m. local time on Wednesday in the small village of Sokolniki Suche, roughly 100 kilometers south of the country’s capital Warsaw, when a concrete mixer truck struck an intercity passenger train carrying around 120 people, causing multiple carriages to derail.

    PKP Intercity, Poland’s state-owned long-distance rail operator, confirmed the casualty figures in an official statement shortly after the incident. Photographs from the crash site show severe structural damage to several train carriages, with twisted metal and debris scattered across the area.

    Local authorities have launched an immediate investigation into the cause of the crash, though early reporting from on-site sources indicates the level crossing was equipped with working traffic signals and barriers. Deputy Infrastructure Minister Piotr Malepszak told reporters that the truck driver, who is among those injured, told first responders he had been blinded by bright sunlight at the time of the collision. Investigators note it is still too early to confirm the full sequence of events that led to the tragedy.

    This latest crash comes only one week after a similar near-miss turned fatal incident at a Polish level crossing, when a lorry driver ignored closing barriers and was hit by an oncoming PKP train. Footage of that incident showed the driver making a desperate but failed attempt to reverse out of the path of the speeding train.

    In response to the second deadly level crossing incident in as many weeks, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the crash “very serious” and emphasized the urgent need for immediate regulatory reform. Tusk argued that a “radical toughening of the rules” is required to target motorists who repeatedly ignore warning barriers and red traffic signals to force their way across level crossings, a dangerous habit that has contributed to multiple recent tragedies on Poland’s rail network.

  • Uganda pulling out of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, says military chief

    Uganda pulling out of Prince Harry’s Invictus Games, says military chief

    In a sudden reversal that has stirred international attention, Uganda has announced its withdrawal from the Invictus Games, the global sporting event for wounded and injured military veterans founded and led by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. This decision comes only two months after the East African nation formally confirmed its participation in the 2025 competition set to be hosted in Birmingham, England, which would have made Uganda the 26th member country of the Invictus Games community.

    The withdrawal announcement was made via a post on X by General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Uganda’s Chief of Defence Forces and the son of long-time Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. In his statement, General Kainerugaba framed the pullout as an act of deference to the British monarchy, saying, “In order not to be construed as being opposed to His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom, whom we deeply revere, Uganda hereby withdraws from the Invictus Games. We shall not participate in anything that does not have His Majesty’s approval.”

    The timing of the announcement lines up directly with a recent formal clarification from Buckingham Palace, which confirmed that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle—who recently returned to the UK for a series of public engagements—no longer hold official working royal roles under King Charles. Reporting from The Times has additionally cited that General Kainerugaba had privately expressed concerns over what he called the “Harry-Meghan nonsense”, framing that rift as the underlying context for the withdrawal decision.

    A Ugandan government spokesperson later confirmed the general’s position to the BBC, noting that the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) defers to General Kainerugaba on all decisions regarding military participation in international events. “What you saw is his stated position. If it changes, he will let the world know,” the spokesperson added.

    Royal sources have pushed back on the framing of the dispute, telling reporters that King Charles remains fully supportive of all initiatives that support wounded and injured service members, including the Invictus Games. Spokespeople for the Invictus Games organization have also said that as of Thursday, they had not received any formal official notification of Uganda’s withdrawal, and have been reaching out to their local contacts in the country to seek clear clarification on the situation.

    The withdrawal announcement was not the only notable post from General Kainerugaba on X this Thursday. In separate messages, the general made a self-aggrandizing claim that he is “the most handsome, most daring and glorious Commander who ever lived”, and also shared a series of angry posts criticizing other senior Ugandan generals for holding a dance event without first obtaining his permission.

    When Uganda’s participation was first announced in July during Prince Harry’s promotional tour for the 2025 Birmingham games, the invitation marked a milestone expanding the Invictus Games’ reach across Africa. The event, which launched in 2014, is centered on celebrating the physical and psychological resilience of military personnel who have been injured or disabled during service, supporting their ongoing rehabilitation through competitive sport.

  • The Rwandan eyeing Champions League history against Man Utd

    The Rwandan eyeing Champions League history against Man Utd

    For lifelong Manchester United supporter Joy-Lance Mickels, a childhood dream is about to become reality this Thursday, as the 32-year-old Rwanda international prepares to step onto the pitch at Old Trafford for the opening matchday of the 2026-27 UEFA Champions League league phase.

    Mickels, who is expected to lead the line for Azerbaijani champions Sabah FC against the Red Devils (kickoff 20:00 BST), has called the draw to face his boyhood club the best possible outcome for his underdog side. “I watch every Man Utd game when I can,” Mickels told BBC World Service in an exclusive interview. “It makes it even better because we’re going to play in Old Trafford. Manchester United are one of the biggest clubs in the world so it will be a proud moment to step out on to the pitch.”

    This moment marks the culmination of a historic underdog run for both Mickels and Sabah, a club founded only nine years ago that is competing in the Champions League proper for the first time in its short history. Playing in his second spell with the Masazir-based side, based 16 kilometers northwest of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, Mickels has been the driving force behind Sabah’s fairytale qualifying run. The forward found the back of the net four times across four qualifying rounds, including a decisive strike that sealed a 6-4 aggregate win over Israel’s Hapoel Be’er Sheva after a late 94th-minute opponent goal forced the tie into extra time. Remarkably, he scored in every single round of qualifying to book Sabah’s place in the league phase.

    Off the pitch, Mickels’ path to Europe’s top club competition has been far from a straightforward rise. Born and raised in Germany, he spent the first half of his career bouncing between German lower leagues, with early stints in the reserve sides of top clubs Borussia Mönchengladbach and Schalke, before later taking spells in the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. He first joined Sabah from 2021 to 2023, before returning to the club’s Bank Respublika Arena base two years ago. “My career has not always followed a straight or easy path,” Mickels reflected. “I have played at different levels and in several countries. But every experience has helped me grow both as a footballer and as a person.”

    Eligible to represent Rwanda through his Rwandan-born parents, Mickels only made his international debut for the East African nation (nicknamed the Wasps) in March 2026. This Thursday’s appearance will make him the first player from Rwanda to feature in the main draw of the UEFA Champions League, a milestone he says he carries with immense pride. “I’m very proud of my Rwandan roots,” he said. “Representing Rwanda whilst playing the Champions League is very, very special. I hope my journey can help inspire young Rwandan players and show them that with belief, hard work and patience, it is possible to reach the pinnacle of football.”

    Sabah’s historic Champions League campaign does not end at Old Trafford. After opening their campaign against Manchester United, the club will host glamourous fixtures against former Champions League winners Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, though the side will be forced to play these home matches at Baku’s Olympic Stadium, as their own ground does not meet UEFA’s venue requirements. Their campaign will wrap up with a second trip to England, where they will face reigning Premier League champions Arsenal.

    Mickels acknowledges that Sabah enter the competition as clear underdogs, particularly after securing their first ever Azerbaijan Premier League title last season, where Mickels notched 19 goals to lead the charge. But he insists the side is not traveling to Manchester just to soak in the atmosphere. “At the same time, we’re not going there only to enjoy the atmosphere. We want to compete to represent not only our club but Azerbaijan in the best possible way and show we deserve to be there,” he said.

    “Every match in the Champions League is special because you are competing against some of the best teams and players in Europe. Of course, Manchester United and Barcelona immediately stood out because of their history and global reputation. Playing at Old Trafford and welcoming Barcelona to Baku are the kinds of occasions every footballer dreams about. But we should respect every opponent and each match will be an opportunity for us to test ourselves at the highest level.”

    Led by manager Valdas Dambrauskas, who built his coaching career using winnings from his appearance on the Lithuanian version of *Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?*, the entire Sabah squad is relishing the underdog spotlight. Mickels says the side’s goal is simple: leave the competition with pride, valuable experience, and as many points as possible. “We know that the level will be extremely high, but we believe in ourselves and the strength of our team. We want to gain valuable experience, create memorable moments for our supporters and earn as many points as possible,” he said. “We want to go out with some points and we’re going to make it difficult for everybody to get points on us. This is the target.”

  • Listen: Juror in Lindsay Clancy trial speaks about lone holdout

    Listen: Juror in Lindsay Clancy trial speaks about lone holdout

    In a rare public comment following the high-profile proceedings in the Lindsay Clancy trial, one sitting juror has broken silence to shed new light on the closed-door deliberations that shaped the case’s outcome. The juror, who chose to speak on condition of anonymity to protect their privacy amid intense public scrutiny of the trial, opened up about the tense dynamics that unfolded inside the jury room during days of closed discussions.

    According to the juror’s account, the 12-member panel included a handful of what they described as “big personalities” – individuals who were unafraid to voice strong, unwavering opinions and push back heavily against perspectives that clashed with their own. Despite the charged atmosphere and strong convictions held by most jurors, the panel ultimately maintained enough respect for differing views to avoid rushing a decision. Most notably, the juror confirmed that one panel member stood alone as a holdout on the verdict, refusing to align with the majority position even as discussions stretched on.

    In a striking twist to the behind-the-scenes account, the speaking juror emphasized that the majority of the panel defended the lone holdout’s right to hold a dissenting opinion. Rather than pressuring the outlier to abandon their position or rush a compromise, jurors acknowledged the importance of allowing every panel member to weigh in fully and stand by their conclusions, even when that meant extended deliberations. The comments offer an unprecedented look into how jury dynamics function in high-emotion, publicized criminal cases, highlighting the tensions between majority consensus and individual conviction that are core to the U.S. jury trial system.

  • Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI ‘could kill all humans’

    Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI ‘could kill all humans’

    The global debate over artificial intelligence safety has entered a urgent new phase, as current and former researchers from leading AI developer Anthropic have issued stark warnings that rapid, unregulated progress could put the entire human species at risk within the next 10 years.

    Evan Hubinger, a leading AI alignment researcher at Anthropic — the company behind the popular chatbot and coding assistant Claude — shared his grim assessment in a viral post on X that has now been viewed over 10 million times. Hubinger clarified that current-generation AI models carry a low level of existential risk, but warned that the technology’s accelerating pace of self-improvement means there is a greater than 10% chance supercharged AI could kill all humans by the mid-2030s.

    While Hubinger did not outline a specific scenario for how AI could cause human extinction, his comments mark a deepening of the conversation around AI risk: the debate has shifted in recent months from whether advanced AI poses a genuine threat to humanity to just how severe that threat could become. Hubinger added that while Anthropic is making a good-faith effort to address safety concerns, the company currently has no actionable plan to solve the critical problem of AI alignment — the process of embedding human ethical values into AI systems to ensure they align with human priorities — and is not on a clear path to solving it ahead of the arrival of superintelligent AI.

    Hubinger’s post came in response to comments from Jacob Coxon, a former AI researcher who recently left Anthropic after previous stints at OpenAI. Coxon accused both of the leading AI firms of acting irresponsibly, noting that advanced AI systems will soon reach superhuman capability, allowing them to breach nearly any cyber defense, upend entire industries overnight, and accumulate significant real-world power and resources. OpenAI has been contacted for comment on the accusations, but has not yet issued a response.

    Wendy Hall, a prominent computer scientist who advises the United Nations on AI policy, told the BBC she was stunned by the social media posts from the two researchers. Hall suggested the warnings could be a calculated PR move as both Anthropic and OpenAI prepare for highly anticipated initial public offerings, but added that if the comments are genuine, investors should reconsider backing firms that acknowledge such severe risks without a clear mitigation plan. “Why would someone want to say that? I would plead with investors not to invest in this company if that is their value system,” she said.

    In a separate development that has raised further questions about AI safety collaboration, the Financial Times reported this week that Anthropic has declined to share its latest frontier AI model with the UK’s AI Safety Institute (AISI), one of the world’s leading global bodies tasked with assessing and mitigating AI risk. Anthropic has declined to comment on either its former and current employees’ social media posts or the report about withholding its model from the AISI. A UK Cabinet Office spokesperson did not directly confirm or deny that the model was withheld, instead stating that the UK government “continues to collaborate closely with industry partners, including Anthropic, to make models safer.”

    Warnings over AI safety have grown increasingly urgent across the industry in recent months, as new evidence emerges that leading firms are struggling to contain emerging risks from autonomous AI systems. Earlier this summer, multiple major AI developers — including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta — publicly disclosed incidents where their own autonomous AI agents successfully carried out cyber-attacks, a development that many alignment researchers see as proof that current safety efforts are falling short.

    In Anthropic’s own August safety report, the company assessed that the risk of its future highly capable models becoming misaligned and causing catastrophic, AI-initiated harm through automated weapons research and development was low, but it also noted that its confidence in that low-risk assessment has dropped compared to previous reports. The company wrote that it is already seeing “early signs of potential acceleration” in AI capability gains that are outpacing safety progress.

    Calls for urgent action to slow AI development and strengthen global oversight have grown in recent months from even the highest levels of the industry. In 2023, the CEOs of OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic jointly warned of the existential risk posed by unregulated advanced AI. More recently, OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki called for “extreme caution” around rapid AI progress, arguing that greater intervention is needed to ensure humans retain control of future technological development. Anthropic’s own top leaders, Dario Amodei and Jared Kaplan, have also backed calls to slow the pace of frontier AI development.

    Earlier this year, an open letter signed by more than 1,300 AI industry employees called on the U.S. government to support a global international effort to build the technical and governance frameworks needed to deliberately slow the pace of advanced autonomous AI development, to give safety researchers time to close the gap between capability gains and risk mitigation.

  • Reigning Miss Austria beauty queen dies aged 22

    Reigning Miss Austria beauty queen dies aged 22

    The Austrian beauty pageant community is mourning the unexpected passing of 22-year-old Lucia Sisic, the current reigning Miss Austria 2024, who lived with a chronic congenital heart condition her entire life.

    The organization that oversees the Miss Austria and Mister Austria competitions, Mission Austria, shared the devastating news in a heartfelt public tribute posted to its official Facebook page on Monday. Translated from the original German statement, the post read: “It is with great shock and deep sorrow that we have learned of the passing of our Miss Austria 2024, Lucia Sisic. We will remember Lucia as a wonderful young woman. Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to her family, friends, and all those close to her during this difficult time.” Signed by Mission Austria CEO Kerstin Rigger and her husband Jörg, the tribute emphasized that Sisic “will always remain a part of our Miss Austria family.” As of the announcement, no official cause of death has been formally confirmed by authorities.

    Sisic earned her Miss Austria crown in 2024, and has retained the title as no subsequent national pageant has been held to crown a successor. Unlike many public figures who choose to hide personal health struggles, Sisic spoke openly about her lifelong journey with heart disease, using her platform to inspire others facing similar medical challenges.

    Over the course of her life, Sisic underwent seven separate surgical procedures to treat her condition, with her very first operation taking place just moments after she was born. In a 2024 interview with Austrian local publication Heute, she reflected on how her health shaped her early years: “Sports weeks took place without me. My childhood was simply different, but it also made me strong.” Later that year, she shared a public post on Instagram expressing gratitude to the pediatric medical team that cared for her from childhood, writing, “Thanks to the medical staff and the dedicated doctors – who time and again saved my life through their tremendous efforts – I have overcome many difficult moments and been able to lead a fulfilling life.”

    Herzkinder Österreich, an Austrian non-profit dedicated to supporting children born with heart conditions, also released a tribute to Sisic following the announcement of her passing. The organization described itself as “deeply saddened by the untimely death” of the young titleholder, noting that “at just 22 years old, she left us far too soon.” In its Facebook post, the charity highlighted Sisic’s unique perspective and courageous spirit: “Lucia herself was a true child at heart. A young woman who knew what it meant to grow up with a congenital heart defect, to endure surgeries, and still to pursue her own path with courage and joy. We will remember her as a warm-hearted, joyful, and impressive young woman – and as an adult child who wanted to give courage to others affected.”

    Tributes from across Austria have continued to pour in for Sisic, who is remembered for her resilience, warmth, and commitment to lifting up others navigating chronic childhood health conditions.